Page 57 of Savage Crown

I should not be here.

Not like this.

Not when I’m still drowning in suspicion, in anger, in the slow, rotting weight of my own desire.

I step back slowly.

Then another.

Then her voice cuts through the silence.

“Couldn’t sleep either?”

My breath catches.

She hasn’t moved. Hasn’t opened her eyes.

But she’s awake.

She’s been awake.

She knew I was standing here.

Watching her.

I clench my jaw. “Go back to sleep, Seraphina.”

Her lips twitch, the smallest hint of a smirk curving at the edges. “Not until you do.”

A challenge.

Like she knows exactly why I’m here.

Like she’s daring me to cross the line we both know is already ruined.

I grip the corner of the door.

I should leave.

I need to leave.

If I don’t?—

If I let this pull between us win?—

Neither of us will walk away unscathed.

The silence stretches too long, too charged.

Then—I exhale, stepping back into the hall.

And this time, I don’t look back.

If I do?—

I won’t be able to stop myself.

22

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